Connection

MAY 2014 -

Walking down by the pond it is so still except for the song of a warbler. Sitting by the water, I thought over the past weeks. It has been busy with four courses in four countries working with some of the faces of power – balance, gratitude, responsibility, joy, and the spirits of nature.

Many people think of power as the power over us, but as we know it is also a surging energy that gives life-force. Power has so many faces and different ways of interacting with our lives: the powe…

AUTUMN 2014 -

Today, someone asked me how I feel about Åsbacka, the place where I live. I could feel the answer in my heart before the word came. And when the word came, I said “Home.” As soon as I said it, I knew that I had found a new understanding of “home”.

For me Åsbacka is not only a place to live. Åsbacka is a being – a being with whom I have a relationship. Åsbacka has needs and I have needs. We take care of each other and nourish each other in many ways. We share this space and we liv…

SPRING 2015 -

The days are getting longer and I feel very excited about the courses and retreats we are offering this year. When I first learned to practice shamanism it was presented to me as a set of techniques that could help me and others. I could see this was a powerful and good way, but gradually I began to sense it was not the whole story. There was more to shamanism than techniques.

It has taken a long time, but shamanism is now the heart and soul of my life. It informs everything I do…

MIDSUMMER 2015 -

Many people I meet wonder about the meaning or mission of their life, what they can do to make a difference, or to feel their life has value. In the Western world, people and media are often preoccupied with the question "who am I?", as if knowing this will solve all their mysteries and the problems of the world. But from many years of doing shamanic work, I feel there is a more essential and rewarding question: "how do I want to live?"

My Teacher once said to me, “Now that yo…

HARVEST EQIUNOX 2015 -

The first birch leaves are yellowing, and soon the cranes will be flying south as Summer seamlessly moves into Autumn. When does the one end and the other begin? It’s different every year, but one day I become aware that the light is changing and I find myself looking back on the warm mornings of July and forward to the cool evenings of October. What did I plant in the Springtime and what am I harvesting now?

At the end of the soul-retrieval course in August I realized t…

FEBRUARY 2016 -

This Spring marks the thirtieth anniversary of the very first shamanic workshop I ever taught. Of course I wasn’t alone the doing the teaching. My Spirits were with me all the way. I suppose they were looking at me the way we look at a child who is taking her first steps. And there was one miracle I remember to this day: a woman was spontaneously healed from claustrophobia which had been plaguing her all of her life – cured on her very first journey. Any doubts about shamanism I…

WINTER 2016 -

We are blessed to live in amazingly challenging times. Often we cannot help but feel hopeless in the face of what is happening, be it environmental destruction, political injustice, poverty or greed. But if we allow these things to cripple us, then neither we nor the world has a chance. This cannot be allowed to happen.

We also live in a time of amazing possibilities. For the past half year I have been greatly inspired by what is going on at the Standing Rock Lakota Reservation o…

AUTUMN 2018 -

On a misty day you can see forever
If you close your eyes and
Listen to the sound of the clouds
Caressing the mountain’s face
Then there are no secrets
To be kept away from anyone
You only have to listen

This year has been a time of deepening for us. A time not so much about the new or finding more, but being deeper with where we are. Peeling off the layers, letting them fall away and allowing them to enrich us.

Shamanic practice is a kind of spiritual archeology. On every cou…

WINTER SOLSTICE 2018 -

Often in everyday life we find ourselves under pressure or caught up in a rush, trying to reach a destination, achieve a result, or find an answer. Both time and space are entities many people feel they do not have enough of - but Time is an elastic magical creature and we can work shamanically with it. Consciously deciding to make more space and take more time are strong intentions and essential tools of a spiritual practice. We can slow down and come into ourselves, we…

AUTUMN 2019 -

When teaching, we often hear ourselves say: “The Circle is my Home.” We have come to feel the truth of this more and more. The feeling of sitting together, around a center, sharing intention, touches the heart and soul. In the Circle we see people begin to heal and become more themselves. We see them open to the Spirits and to new possibilities. In a Circle, we don’t all have to be the same. We don’t have to be anyone else but ourselves. We learn from each other’s experiences and…